Less Than Two Weeks To The Next Vintage Collection HasLab

During the Imperial March livestream on March 20th, Hasbro announced that they would be launching another Vintage Collection HasLab on May the 4th (aka "Star Wars" Day). I'm not a patient man. Veruka Salt is my soulmate:


I felt like the wait would be torture, but as everyone says, time flies when you get older. That first month of that six week wait feels like it went by in a snap, and now it's coming right around the corner. Plus I have the NFL draft, NHL playoffs and NBA playoffs to sped the last mile along. The playoffs we provide an appropriate metaphor in a bit. It will be May the 4th before we know it.

I'm starting to get butterflies of excitement about its imminent launch. HasLabs are my favorite event on the collecting calendar. Our community is heavily fractured. There are people who only want new and never before made characters in the line (that's a well established cheat code for destroying a line, by the way). There are people who very much want updates to bring previously issued characters up to today's standards (raises hand). There are people who want reduced articulation for the sake of more figures released per year, and there are people who are in the "give me super articulation or give me death" camp. I could go on an on. We frequently tug the line in different directions, but HasLabs are the one time when most oars are beating the same direction (reflexive contrarians aside). So my anticipation is peaking, but so is my nervousness.

I'm a little on edge because I feel like there is a tremendous amount riding on this next one. The reasoning is than, in my opinion, Hasbro used up the obvious candidates on the previous three. The next one won't have the automatic and widespread appeal. It's like they used their three lifelines, and now they're going to have to answer the $1,000,000 question without a net. If the next HasLab succeeds, it likely signals that Vintage Collection HasLab's are something Hasbro can turn to frequently. If it fails, I think it will mean that Vintage Collection, and to a larger extent, Star Wars HasLabs can't be taken for granted. They will have to wait for the right conditions to emerge before considering another attempt, instead of just picking the "next one up".

Here's the sports analogy I promised. The NHL and NBA playoffs are four rounds. The Barge was like that first round where the higher seeded team takes the inferior team for granted, and it becomes more of a struggle than it should be. Ultimately, the better team perseveres. The Crest was a 4-0 sweep that was a bit of a snoozer. The Ghost was a 4-1 win, but the pivotal game 5 came down to the wire. Now the Vintage Collection is in the finals. Anyone who has watched their team lose a championship knows that it's somehow worse than not even making it there in the first place. We're about to find out of TVC hoist the trophy or if it joins the ranks of alsorans.

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